2020 Overview

2020 was an interesting year! We started out with Daniel winning “coolest car” for the Pinewood Derby. March 13 was my “last day” in the office. Monday, March 16 was my first day in our dining room “office.” What we thought would only be a few weeks turned into several months. Now we are closing up on one year working from home. 

Truthfully, I miss my coworkers and friends from work. I miss leading and facilitating in person meetings. I miss our dining center and the general collegial nature of our workspace and everyone in it from the cooks to the security guards to the servers to the facilities staff to even those whose names I never knew but smiled at daily.   

When we do go back, there will be a smile that is missing from the hundreds of familiar faces. My friend Adrian passed away in late October. Her smile lit up every room and she genuinely loved life. My heart breaks even now, months later. I think of all the plans she had and places she wanted to go and see. I wish her life wasn’t cut so short. 

During the pandemic, our family grew close to our next door neighbor, Lee Holt. We took meals to her and checked on her several times a week. We enjoyed sunny days in her front yard and talked for hours about everything and about nothing. She had recently “overcome cancer” and we celebrated with cinnamon rolls and a visit from the fire department to her house! I don’t know if we will ever know how much her friendship meant to me and to our family. She meant a lot to us and so our hearts broke again in 2020 with the loss of this sweet friend.

2020 taught me many things:

1. Let Go. So many things were out of our control beginning in mid-March 2020. The school year ended abruptly, and Daniel began remote learning. Being a teacher and working full time was a challenge. However, it was completely out of my control, and out of the control of everyone we knew. We were hit especially hard. Welles' job is selling food to restaurants, an industry that was hit particularly hard during the pandemic. 

2. God provides. Welles' lost income was not as big of a hit due to the fact that I was no longer commuting to work, eating lunch out each day, no longer getting nails done, and we missed two vacations (a spring break trip to Callaway Gardens and a baseball trip to Chicago to see the Cubs play at Wrigley field and the White Sox play at their stadium.) 

3. Be thankful.  With the loss of dear friends, we learned to cherish each day and to be thankful. I vividly remember my last conversation with Adrian, and my last chat with Lee. I'm so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to say, "Love you, Chicka!" to Adrian, and "I love you, too, Lee!" the last time I talked to them. 

4. Extend kindness. Life is way to short to hold grudges and live with disappointment or to live with unhappiness. You never know what someone else is going through. Being sincere and offering the best of what you have to give to others is more important than you think. The hardest thing you can do is to be kind to everyone - even those who are difficult to be around or challenging to love. It's easy to be kind to gentle, easy-going people. God encourages us to: 

Love the Lord your God with all of your Heart and Soul and Mind. Matthew 22:37

Love one another, even as I have loved you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.  John 13:34-35

With all that 2020 taught me, I still have so much to learn! Here's to 2021 and beyond.

Twenty Twenty Vacations

We went on three beach vacations in 2020. We felt safest on the gulf coast, and it was so nice to get away from home where we spent so much time during pandemic "safe at home" ordinances.

Our first trip was to Ft. Walton where the Berkery Family likes to spend their free time. We stayed through the 4th of July holiday and really enjoyed our trip! Next we went to Navarre Beach, FL with my brother and his daughters. The kids were so good and had a great time together, and it truly was a relaxing time before school started the following week.

Lastly, we went back to Navarre for Thanksgiving with my parents and brother and his girls.

Sour Dough Starter and Bread

I am so thankful to Sandi Rives for sharing her sour dough starter with me!  Making bread, cinnamon rolls, and most recently pizza dough and exploring all of the amazing ways to use the sourdough dough has been a simple pleasure during our quarantine. I have made cinnamon swirl loaves, cinnamon raisin bread, and garlic knots. There is no limit! 🙂 Below is the recipe and starter that Sandi shared with me. Enjoy!

Sourdough Starter
You will need:
1 quart glass jar with a good tight-fitting lid
3 TB instant potato flakes
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup warm water

This is what the starter looks like just after you have fed it. It needs to sit and eat for another 8 to 12 hours.

Put the above ingredients in a jar containing the starter and mix well. Cover loosely with wax paper or film, put on counter and let sit all day 8-12 hours. This will "bubble, work, do its thing." Stir well, take out one cup and:

• Use to make bread, 
• or
• Give Away, 
• or
• Throw Away

With the liquid that is left in the jar, cover with the lid and keep in the refrigerator.  Feed within 3 to 5 days.
Note - do not put the lid on the jar until you have removed 1 cup.  The starter is active and has enough pressure to "explode."

Sourdough Bread

1/4 cup sugar (Sandi does not add this, Sherry does. :) Make bread with and without and decide which you prefer.)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 TB salt

1 and 1/4 cup sourdough starter 

1 and 1/2 cups warm water

6 cups bread flour (If you cannot find bread flour, unbleached all-purpose flour will work. My brother in law was able to find bread flour at Sam's Club.)

Mix dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients. This will make a stiff dough (Sherry - I add a little more starter, about 1/4 cup if the dough is dry). Make sure you thoroughly incorporate all ingredients - you can use your hands to make sure you have mixed all ingredients well. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand overnight or 8-12 hours. Do not refrigerate.

Punch down the dough and knead a little on a floured surface. Divide into 2 or 3 parts depending on how many loaves you are making. At this point, you can follow the directions in my Cinnamon Roll Recipe. Or, you can put some aside for pizza dough.  Or  you can separate into small portions for rolls.  Examples are listed below.

If you are making a loaf of sourdough, put the dough into a greased loaf pan (dough will fit in two or three regular-sized loaf pans), cover with plastic wrap and let rise on the counter 5 hours, or longer. (All day is fine, dough rises slowly.) Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and brush with butter. 

Cool well, and wrap. Freezes well. 

This is what the dough looks like as it is rising. It will at least double in size.

This is a loaf of sourdough bread made from this starter recipe.  It is absolutely delicious!

I made these rolls for Easter lunch.  I rolled the dough out after kneading, cut the rolls to the size of the squares in the pan above, placed the dough squares in the greased pan, covered and let rise for 4-5 hours before baking.

This is what the cinnamon rolls look like just after rolling and cutting the dough.

These rolls have risen overnight

Cinnamon Rolls

These days - during the pandemic social distancing, work-from-home, stay home era - I have been doing a lot of baking and cooking.

My friend Sandi from Dawson shared her Sourdough Starter with me a couple of weeks ago, and my favorite thing to make with it is cinnamon rolls!  Using dough that has been rising overnight or for at least 8 hours, knead the dough on a floured surface and roll it to about 1/2 inch - roll it loosely to the shape of a rectangle.

Melt 1/4 cup of butter and spread over the dough.

Mix 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 and 1/2 TBSP cinnamon. spread this mixture evenly over the butter.
Roll the dough starting with the longest end.

Once you've finished rolling the dough, use a pastry blade or a butcher knife to cut 1 inch sections.  

 Place on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Cover with plastic wrap and set on your kitchen counter to let the dough rise for at least 8 hours.

 This is what it looks like after I let the dough rise overnight. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. 

Let cool for about 5 minutes before icing.  My favorite icing recipe is this one from all recipes. 

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

Enjoy!

Last half of 2019

I haven’t been good about posting or recording things over the last few years.  I promise to do better this year!  Below are pictures and events from the last half of 2019.

College roomie, Mystique and I at a cooking class!



Everest at Animal Kingdom! Daniel and Welles are in the 4th row!

Daniel participated in "Straight Street Idol" at Camp Straight Street

Animal Kingdom Safari

Daniel and friends at Centrikid

Maggie Grace and James

All dressed up at Lindsey's rehearsal dinner

Leaving for Centrikid

We visited Meghan and Craig in Juno Beach in August.  We went to the Sea Turtle hospital and saw a sweet little hatchling making his way to the ocean the next morning. Overall it was a fabulous trip!

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Fort Walton.  We had so much fun spending time with our friends the Berkery Family.

Thanksgiving in Ft. Walton